Channel 4 struck out with game shows every time. The last time they tried, it was the 1990 version of Tic Tac Dough with Patrick Wayne and it only lasted 13 weeks.
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Who aired what in Atlanta: Lesser-known game shows
- Thread starter johnnya2k6
- Start date
I'll say that many thought Jeopardy wouldn't last after 1985 because early on Alex Trebek had some mixed reviews and unfair comparisons to Art Fleming. Many station managers were afraid to put it in prime access (though WYFF was one of the first to sign on for Wheel of Fortune with uncertainty of its future success, along with I believe WXIA and of course most of the CBS O&O stations). I think WYFF would have kept WoF as long as they didn't have to renew Jeopardy (or pick up Headline Chasers as well). WLOS wouldn't have picked up Sale of the Century because they didn't need to; they now held the rights to the Wheel/Jeopardy powerhouse block. And WHNS, like WYFF, rarely carried syndie game shows save for Double Dare, Fun House, Straight to the Heart (1989 dating show with Michael Burger of Match Game 1998), Woolery Love Connection, Louie Anderson Family Feud, John O'Hurley's To Tell the Truth, and now reruns of Chris Harrison Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (only because it was used to replace COPS in most markets this time last year).
Larger cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, etc. had an advantage in having more independent stations in the 80's and 90's, so there were more available times to place game shows, classic reruns, cartoons, etc. In Memphis there were only two independent stations, which went to Fox and UPN/WB in prime time, and to mostly talk and courtroom shows in the daytime. So they were able to get game shows that we never saw in the Memphis area, although in some cases it may be just as well considering some of the flops that have been mentioned in this thread.
I referred to WHNS, the Fox affiliate which carried Louie's Family Feud and now Millionaire reruns among other things. I know WYFF had TTD90, as well as the Last Word with Wink Martindale in 1989-90 at 2:30am.
I remember that awful version of TTD you're talking about...While Patrick Wayne wasn't as bad as a lot of the game show community thinks he was, I still think that Wink Martindale did a better job in his heyday. I thought Pat Finn did a pretty good job on TJW 90, he had the same pacing as the late Jack Barry did. Most of the later shows i saw on USA Network(saw the syndie SOTC this way too.)
Considering Wink Martindale is from the Memphis area I'm surprised that no Memphis stations carried his other game shows after TTD. Granted none of them lasted long and some were on cable only, but Memphis stations got a reputation for not carrying many syndicated game shows except Wheel and Jeopardy in the 80;s and 90's, and then Family Feud and Millionaire in the 2000's.
That wasn't the only mistake they made either. What about when they dropped Monty DuPuy's kids show from weekdays for the soap Bright Promise? That was a bad move too, but kids shows belong on Saturdays.
Pat Finn would make a great host for the upcoming seasons of Jeopardy taking the torch from our beloved Alex Trebek, but I doubt he is considering it (he wasn't one of those on the guest host roster).
I didn't know that channel 7 carried Family Feud with Richard Dawson. I know they did with Ray Combs, but didn't know they had the Dawson version too.
It's kind of what happened with their post 11:00 timeslot in 1989, on the weekends, when they got American Gladiators to replace what was their late movies, and AG was a success for the station. They've hadn't had anything like that since.
I believe they had the whole run. However, WLOS carried the Best of Family Feud reruns in 1985-86 and the Dawson comeback in 1994-95, plus the first season (and maybe second) of the Richard Karn run and now carries a run of Steve Harvey's Feud weekdays at 10am the last couple years leading into Jeopardy repeats. WFBC/WYFF is the only station not to carry ANY syndicated Feud episodes (only the Celebrtiy Family Feud with Al Roker on NBC Primetime).
The interesting part was how odd WSPA's schedule was in comparison to WYFF during network daytime in the 80s. Why WSPA didn't clear Press Your luck(and only doing it because SOTC was beating whatever it showed at 10:30) and how that WYFF had to clear Santa Barbara(because whatever they *did* show got very poor ratings opposite General Hospital and Guiding Light.)
WLOS had the daytime show for a while, but they made a questionable decision to drop it when it moved to noon. Why not put the syndicated stuff at 11:30 instead, then air Feud and Ryan's Hope?
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